It hasn’t transformed my life. But some things are changing.
I got my iPad last week, a few days before the start of classes. I immediately procrastinated on finishing my syllabi by spending the better part of an evening setting it up with apps and files.
I’ll focus in this post on how the iPad has changed my experience as a reader so far, and follow up next week with a post about using the iPad in teaching after I’ve had a few more classes to test it out.
Screenshot of my Pulse setup; these are the first 3 of 20 feeds I've chosen.
News. I set up the slick Pulse app with feeds of local news from my local newspaper, the state news from the Sacramento Bee, investigative stories from California Watch, and a variety of other tech, higher ed, and knitting topics. (Yes, there is such a thing as knitting news.) These feeds, in combination with a perusal of the New York Times, BBC and AP apps, pretty much satisfied my morning news needs.
I experimented the first morning after setting this up by reading the newspaper after completing this iPad news routine, and found in it little I’d missed – the obituaries, letters to the editor, local lifestyle news. And, I can tweet an article from my local paper directly from Pulse without having to go to my browser, find the story (if I can), copy and paste the URL to Twitter, etc.
I am still debating whether I want to continue my newspaper subscription, but probably will out of loyalty to local journalism. That loyalty is still victorious over my desire to be more green. We’ll see how long it wins out.
Magazines. This one is an easier call. My magazine subscriptions are all going digital ASAP. As they expire, I’ll shift them over to the digital versions. I think almost all of my subscriptions are accessible digitally, and since most of them are digital replicas anyway, I don’t feel I’ll miss much besides the weight in my recycle bin. Even those I used to keep around – such as the occasional copy of Yoga Journal for a particular sequence, handy to have in print by the yoga mat – can be more easily stored and located on the iPad, which sits on the floor just as well.
Books. I bought one book on the iPad through the Kindle app. I am a heavy user of my local library, which efficiently brings requested books to my nearest branch. The free use of library books is much more appealing to me than the purchase of digital books from Amazon or Apple (especially for guilty-pleasure fiction I will never re-read). The one book I bought has a library waiting list of 600 people at the moment, so I was willing to spend $8 for the Kindle edition to avoid months of delay.
Using the iPad. I find it comfortable to read on the iPad, despite its weight and backlighting. I like that even with my severe myopia, I can make the text big enough to read without glasses – something I haven’t experienced comfortably since about sixth grade. The only challenge is reading on my dining table, where I have to turn the overhead lights off due to glare on the iPad’s shiny screen. Otherwise, I love having so much reading material on one device.
How has the iPad changed your reading experience? Am I the only one ready to end the print subscriptions, despite a lifelong love of print magazines? Please tell me I’m not the only traitor to the medium out there.
Although I don’t own an iPad and can’t picture myself investing in one in the near future, I found your post interesting, espcially the paragraph about reading books on your iPad. I was just mentioning to my Book Club ladies the other week that although I think that the Kindle, iPad, etc., might be fun and portable for book reading, I can’t imagine ever moving to that medium because I, too, am a huge local library patron. Someone needs to come up with a way for me to rent digital books, maybe for a very nominal fee (like $1 or less), in order for me to ever begome an online book reader. Although buying some books online is cheaper than paper books, I still don’t see enough of a savings to switch from my library to purchasing books online.
Agreed – there is no savings right now, only convenience! The only free books I’ve found that are worth getting right now are classics that are in the public domain. I can’t wait for the first digital library!
My experience is much like your own, except I buy books (too many; that hasn’t changed in the move from ink to pixels). I use Pulse regularly, as well as Reeder for my RSS feeds. I haven’t started adding magazine subscriptions yet, but that will be next. All in all, I suspect my buying habits for print will change the same way my buying habits for music have (permanently) changed: the only CD shops I go into any more are those in European countries when I travel, to seek out music that isn’t available at home. I can see myself continuing to haunt second-hand-book stores (but buying far less), and bookstores when I travel (for those local goodies). But it’s only print I’m abandoning: not the news organizations, not the authors (or musicians). It’s only the form that’s changed, which I can’t consider traitorous. Hope that helps.
- Mark
Oops. One more app you might want to look into for reading: GoodReader is a marvel for reading PDFs, and even lets you wirelessly transfer the PDFs from your computer to the iPad.
Thanks for your comments, Mark. I think I’ll need to add Reeder to Pulse simply because I have too many RSS feeds. Some of my favorite blogs don’t post that often, but I don’t want to miss them, so I’ve put them in Pulse; but I feel like they’re taking up space better used for news. I can definitely see myself still buying used books and unusual or foreign magazines in print. With regard to betraying magazines, the music analogy is a good one. I have felt that some magazine-loving friends have been a bit shocked by my willingness to set aside the print format – but you’re right that we are still supporting the medium (maybe even more so, by helping it transition to the digital age).
Thanks for the GoodReader suggestion as well. I was going to include it in next week’s post as a great way to read academic articles – but you beat me to it.
I am enjoying iAnnotate PDF because I can’t read articles without marking them up. More on that in my next installment – including how I plan to keep one of my classes paperless this semester with the iPad!